Nick's review
Rubicon by Tom Holland
After hearing much about this book for several years now and seeing it referenced in essays about the current state of our nation, I found the most striking thing about it was not the parallels to the USA's current situation vis-a-vis the world and the Patriot Act. Rather, what impressed me most were the differences between the world of the Roman 2000+ years ago and our contemporary one. The main such difference being Roman fatalism, the sense that one must make the most of what is, after all, a bad deal. For us, this seems to mean surrounding ourselves with luxuries and comfort, for the Romans it meant becoming famous through wealth, public service or military victories. Hmmmm.
